Douglas Barbour

Douglas Barbour, poet, critic, reviewer, and founding member of NeWest Press—initial funding for the Press consisted of a $500 loan from Barbour—has made significant contributions to the Canadian literary scene.

He is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Alberta, where he has taught creative writing, poetry, Canadian literature, twentieth century poetry and poetics, and science fiction and fantasy. His poetry books include Visible Visions: The Selected Poems of Douglas Barbour (NeWest Press 1984), which won Alberta's Stephan Stephannson Award for poetry, and Story for a Saskatchewan Night (rdc press 1989). More recently, Fragmenting Body etc  (NeWest Press 2000), Breath Takes (Wolsak & Wynn 2002), A Flame on the Spanish Stairs (greenboathouse books 2003), and Continuations, with Sheila E. Murphy (University of Alberta Press 2006). Critical works include writings on Daphne Marlatt, John Newlove, bpNichol, and Michael Ondaatje. Lyric/Anti-lyric: essays on contemporary poetry was published in 2001, followed by Transformations of Contemporary Canadian Poetry in English, published in Poland in 2005. His essays have appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the United States, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Denmark.

Barbour’s dynamic readings have engaged audiences across North America, Europe, and the UK, and he has read with Stephen Scobie as the Sound Poetry ensemble, Re: Sounding, in Canada, the U.S., Austria, Denmark, Sweden, West Germany, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. Major appearances include the 12th International Sound Poetry Festival in New York, 1980, the annual conference, Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien, E.V., Grainau, West Germany, 1985, NZ*SAGAS, Laufen, Germany, 1993, the triennial conference, European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, Graz, Austria, 1993, Poetry and History Conference, University of Stirling, 1996, EyeRhymes, Edmonton, 1997, and Poetries of Numerousness, Edmonton, 2009.

Douglas Barbour was inaugurated into the City of Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame in 2003, and continues to support NeWest Press to this day by serving as Board President.

Click here for Douglas Barbour's website.

Click here for "12 and 20 questions with Doug Barbour", an interview with Rob McLellan.